Workday Product Manager

BOF The Barack Obama Foundation; Chicago (IL); Hybrid; USD 102,000 - 127,000; Full time

Job summary

The Barack Obama Foundation is seeking a Lead Workday Product Owner to bridge business needs with the Workday platform. You will own the strategic roadmap, manage sprint priorities, and coordinate internal teams with AMS partners to deliver configurations and complex builds.

In this hybrid Chicago-based role, you will drive governance, change management, and end-user training to ensure successful delivery and adoption of new Workday features across HR, Finance, and Operations.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive Workday product management experience.
• Strong knowledge of Workday modules: HCM, Payroll, Time Tracking, Absence, Projects, Adaptive.
• Experience directing internal engineers and external AMS partners.
• Experience drafting Statements of Work (SOWs) and vendor management.
• Excellent verbal and written communication; cross-functional collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Lead regular stakeholder discussions with leaders across People, Finance, Payroll, and Operations.
• Own Workday strategic roadmap and manage the backlog using Agile methods.
• Direct internal Workday administrators and external AMS partners; triage build vs. outsource.
• Scope external deliverables and draft/review Statements of Work (SOWs).
• Define RACI, governance, and oversee change management and UAT coordination.
• Develop training and documentation to support adoption of new features.

Skills

Workday product management

Roadmap development

Stakeholder alignment

Workday modules (HCM, Payroll, Time &

Education

Workday Pro Platform Certification

Job description

Purpose of the Role

As the Lead Workday Product Owner, you will serve as the strategic bridge between the business teams and our Workday platform. Rather than serving solely as the primary technical builder, you will be the strategic partner to the People Team, Finance, Operations, and IT, ensuring the system aligns with organizational goals. You will own the strategic Workday roadmap, manage sprint priorities, lead stakeholder discussions, and direct both internal Workday resources and our external AMS partners to execute configurations and complex builds.

Core Job Responsibilities

• Strategic Partnership & Stakeholder Management: Lead regular discussions with leaders across the People Team, Finance, Payroll, and Operations to gather business requirements, translate them into technical objectives, and ensure cross-functional alignment.
• Roadmap & Backlog Management: Create and own the Workday strategic roadmap. Utilize Agile methodologies to manage the system backlog, plan sprints, and prioritize feature rollouts and fixes based on business value and current pain points.
• Resource Triaging & Technical Oversight: Direct internal Workday administrators and external AMS partners. Evaluate business requests and effectively triage work to determine what should be configured personally, assigned to the internal engineer, or outsourced to the AMS partner.
• Project Scoping & Vendor Management: Scope and manage external deliverables, including drafting and reviewing Statements of Work (SOWs) for well-defined, large-scale projects handled by AMS partners.
• Governance & Accountability: Define, implement, and maintain a clear RACI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) matrix across all Workday modules to establish strict ownership of data inputs, process flows, and system updates.
• Change Management & Adoption: Ensure business partners and end-users are prepared for bi-annual Workday releases and internal feature rollouts through clear communication and user acceptance testing (UAT) coordination.
• Training & Enablement: Develop and execute comprehensive training programs and documentation to ensure organizational readiness and support the successful adoption of new Workday features and releases.

Key Deliverables / Outcomes

• A transparent, prioritized Workday roadmap and Agile sprint cycle that consistently delivers high-value enhancements to Finance, HR, and Operations.
• Efficient resource allocation, successfully triaging tasks between yourself, the internal resources, and AMS partners to maximize efficiency and ROI.
• Clearly defined SOWs and robust vendor management that results in rapid issue resolution and compliant configurations for our diverse workforce (full-time, hourly, and unionized).
• A well-defined and widely adopted RACI matrix that eliminates ambiguity regarding system governance and data ownership.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of progressive experience in Workday product management, with a strong emphasis on strategic roadmap development, business analysis, and stakeholder alignment.
• Strong functional proficiency across core Workday modules (HCM, Payroll, Time Tracking, Absence, Projects, Adaptive) and Custom Reporting, with demonstrated capability to execute hands-on technical configurations while guiding teams on complex implementations.
• Experience directing technical resources (internal engineers and external AMS partners) and evaluating when to build in-house versus outsource.
• Experience scoping technical requirements and drafting Statements of Work (SOWs) for well-defined Workday projects.
• Exceptional communicator, verbal and written; track record of facilitating discussions, negotiating priorities, and driving consensus among cross-functional teams.

Preferred: Current Workday Pro Platform Certification. Experience operating within an Agile/Scrum environment; proven ability to manage a product backlog, run sprint planning, and prioritize technical deliverables.

Salary & Location

The salary range for this role is between $101,840 and $127,344.

This is a hybrid role based at the Obama Presidential Center in Jackson Park, Chicago.

For an overview of our benefits package, including insurance, paid time off, retirement & more, please visit https://www.obama.org/careers/.

Equal Opportunity Employer

The Foundation is committed to creating a diverse work environment and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. The Foundation does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, parental status, veteran status, or any other protected status under applicable laws. We encourage individuals of all backgrounds to apply. If you are a qualified candidate with a disability, please email us at [e-mail] if you require a reasonable accommodation to complete this application.

Security Statement

The Obama Foundation will never ask for payment or personal financial information during the hiring process or training.

Company Culture

At the Obama Foundation, we are guided by a core belief: that ordinary people working together can change history. Our mission is to inspire those people to take action, empower them to change their world for the better, and connect them so they can achieve more together than they can alone. We were founded by community organizers, so when we seek change, we do it by bringing people together. That approach begins at home, on the South Side of Chicago, where we are building the Obama Presidential Center. The Center represents a historic opportunity for Chicago: a chance to build a world-class museum and public gathering space that celebrates our nation’s first African American President and First Lady, steps away from where he began his career, where she was raised, and where - together they made their home. But that approach extends to all our work, whether it’s holding leadership training sessions in communities throughout the U.S., bringing local leaders together in countries around the world, working to support the global education of girls, or ensuring young men of color have pathways to opportunity. As President Obama has said, "we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together." So join us. For more information, please visit www.obama.org.